Rural mail-box.



S. ALDAL.

RURAL MAIL BOX.

APPLICATION FILED mnzs, 1915.

Patented Feb. 6, 1917.

3 SHEETSSHEET 1- S. ALDAL.

RURAL MAIL BOX.

APPLICATION HLED APR.26, 19l5- 1 l5fl93 Patented Feb. 6, 1917.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2- m v z N 1 s. ALDAL.

RURAL MAIL BOX.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 26. I9I5.

Patented Feb. 6, 1917.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3- WWI Macaw m! mwirs PETERS cownomuwu.wasnmumm n c,

\ STEPHEN ALDAL, OF DONNYBROOK, NORTH DAKOTA.

RURAL MAIL-BOX.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, STEPHEN ALDAL, a citizen of the United States,residing at Donnybrook, in the county of Ward and State of North Dakota,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rural Mail-Boxes;and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exactdescription of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in theart to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to mail boxes, and the primary object of theinvention is to provide a mail box for use in rural districts, whichinclude separate compartments for receiving mail matter, such asletters, or the like, and a compartment for receiving parcel postpackages.

Another object of this invention is to provide hingedly connected doorsfor permitting of access to the interior of the separate compartments ofthe box which are operable synchronously, by a novel form of leverageaction and further to provide means for moving the flag for notifyingeither the mail man or the party receiving the mail, of the existence ofmailmatter within the box.

Another object of this invention is to mount a hinged spring controlledplatform within the parcel post compartment, which is provided forreceiving the parcel post packages thereon, and which has operativelyconnected thereto a flag, which is moved into an cxhibitive positionupon the deposit of a parcel upon the hinged spring controlled platform.

lVith the foregoing and other objects in view this invention consists insuch novel features of construction, combination and arrangement ofparts as will be hereinafter more fully described, illustrated in theaccompanying drawings and claimed.

In describing the invention in detail reference will be had to theaccompanying drawings wherein like characters designate like orcorresponding parts throughout the several views, and in which Figure 1is a side elevation of the improved rural mail box,

Fig. 2 is a front view of the improved mail box,

Fig. 3 is a side elevation, showing the doors in an open position,

Fig. 4; is a vertical section through the mail box,

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 8,1911% Application filed April 26, 1915. Serial No.23,990.

Fig. 5 is a horizontal section. through the mail box on the line 5-5 ofFig. 1,

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary side elevation of the mail box, showing the sideopposite to the one illustrated in Figs. 1 and 3, and

'Fig. is a fragmentary vertical section through the letter or mailcompartment of the box.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, l designates a mail boxstructure as an entirety, which has a con'ipartment 2 for receivingparcel post packages, and a compartment 3 for receiving the ordinarymail matter. The compartment 3 is mounted upon the upper side or top ofthe compart ment '2 and is divided therefrom by a substantiallyhorizontally positioned partition 1-, one portion of which forms a rooffor the section of the compartment 2 which projects beyond the side ofthe compartment 3.

The rear wall 5 of the box has a cover 6 hingedly connected to the upperend thereof, as at 7, which forms a closure for the upper open end ofthe compartment 3. The cover 6 has its edges bent downwardly, foroverlapping the upper edges of the sides of the compartment 3. The rearwall 5 has a plurality of spring tongues 8 secured to the inner surfacethereof, which are provided for retaining letters oranalogous mailmatter. A trough 9 is also secured to the inner surface of the wall 5and forms a receptacle for retaining money, which may be placed thereinfor the purchase of stamps or other analogous purposes.

A door 10 is hingedly connected at 11 to the lower section of thefmrward side of the compartment 2, and the tl'orward side of thecompartme'ut 2 has a transversely extending flange 12 formed thereon,which forms a rest for the door when in an opened posit-ion. The loweredge of the front side of the compartment 3, is also bent at rightangles and forms the upper end of the front side of y the compartment 2being bent outwardly and inwardly upon itself, as is shown at lei,forming a flange against which the upper edge of the door 10 rests, whenthe door is in a closed position.

The door or cover 6 ha. a clip 15 secrued thereto, which has its end 16projecting beyond the edge of the cover and rounded. The rounded end 16of the clip 15 has a lever 17 mounted thereon, and held in place by anut 18. The lever 17 has its lower end pivotally connected as at 19 to asinuously curved arm 20 of a lever 21. The lever 21 is pivotallyconnected at 22 to one side of the box 1 and it has its end extendingupwardly from the pivotal point 22 forked, for forming the arcuate leverarms 20and 23, which curve upwardly, downwardly, and upwardly, as isclearly shown in Figs. 1 and 3 of the drawings. The free end of thearcuate or curved arm is pivotally connected at 2-1: to a lever 25. Thelever '25 is in turn pivotally connected to a clip 2 as is shown at 27The clip 26 is secured to the door 10 and projects outwardly therefrom.V p

The end of the lever 21 which extends downwardly from the pivotal point22 is bent outwardly, as is shown at 28, and it has a flat handle 29mounted thereon which is provided for facilitating the manual rocking ofthe lever 21. When the angled end 28 of the lever 21 is moved upwardly,it will move 7 the levers 17 and 25, so that they will open the door 10and the cover 6 and permit access to the interior of the compartments 2and .3.

The door 10 has a contacting spiral spring 30 connected thereto and tothe bottom 31 of the compartment 2 for facilitating the closing of thedoor 10. r

The bottom 31 of the compartment 2 has a metallic strap 32 securedthereto, which pivotally supports a substantially U-shaped rod 33. Therod 33 has its ends connected to the under surface of a platform 34,which is positioned within the compartment 2 and is provided forreceiving parcels. The rear edge of the platform 34 has one end of acontacting spiral spring 35 connected thereto, which spring extendsrearwardly and is secured to the rear wall 5. The spring 35 tends tohold the platform 34 in an upward position, against its own weight, sothat when a parcel is deposited upon the platform, it will be moveddownwardly against the tension of the spring 35.

The rod 33 has one end thereof extended, across the bottom 31 of thecompartment 2. The extended end 36 of the rod 33 projects out of theside of the compartment, and is bent uipwardly therefrom, passingthrough a guiding strap 37, and having a flag 38 mounted upon its upperend. The flag 38 is positioned so that it will have its outer'edgepositioned inwardly of the forward edge of the box 1, when the platform3% is in its normal position. When the platform 34: is depressed ormoved downwardly by the placing of a parcel thereon, it will rock therod 33 and the extension 36 thereof, moving the forward or outer end ofthe flag 38 outwardlyJoeyond the forward edge of the box 1, as is shownin dotted lines in Fig. 6 of the drawings, for exhibiting a signal whichdesignates the existence of a package within the compartment 2.

The side of the casing or box 1, which has the lever 21 pivoted thereto,has a flag 40 pivotally connected thereto, as is shown at 41. The flag40 has one corner tlriereof bent transversely to the body of the flag,as is shown at l2. The corner 12 is positioned in the path of the upperedge of the lever 21, so that when the lever 21 is moved for opening thecover 6 and the door 10, it will engage the bent out corner 12 and movethe flag 10 upon its pivotal support, so that its is moved into apositionfor having its upperend extending beyond the upper edge of thecover 6. The pin 45 supports and holds the flag in an extended position,until moved to. its normal mounting pivoting position by manual means.The inclined edge of the end of the flag 10 engages the pin 45 and formsmeans for limiting the downward movement of the flag.

From the foregoing description taken in connection with the accompanyingdrawings the advantages of construction and of the method of operationof the improved rural mail box will be readily apparent to those skilledin the art to which this invention appertains and, while in theforegoing description, the principle of the operation of this inventionhas been described together with various features of construction, it isto be understood that certain minor features of construction,combination and arrangement of parts may be altered to suit practicalconditions provided such alterations are comprehended within the scopeof what is claimed. 7

What is claimed is 1. In a rural mail box structure, a box having twoseparate compartments, an independent closure for each compartment, alever pivotally connected to said box body, said lever having one endforked and having the ends thereof bent upwardly, inwardly and thenoutwardly, arms pivotally connected to said curved ends, the arms havingtheir free ends pivotally connected to said closures, and a handleformed on the free end of said lever, whereby saidclosures can beoperated synchronously.

2. In a rural mail box structure, a box having a relatively largecompartment and a relatively small compartment positioned upon the topof the relatively large compartment, said relatively small compartmenthaving its upper end open, a hinged cover for forming a closure for saidopen top of ice

